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IAmLeviathan
31st December 2007, 23:35
ive been in a bit of a row with someone this afternoon over the merits or otherwise of communism, vs the merits or otherwise of the BNP (ugh!), and the person threw a quote of Marx's at me, which he would not source, but insisted that Marx said it. It doesnt strike me as the sort of thing that Marx would say, but i could not defend it or otherwise as i dont know whether he said it or not.... so, hopefully someone here can help me out, perhaps a Marx scholar (im sure there are many) on here could either confirm or deny that Marx said this, or even, if he did, put it in an understandable context. The offending quote was:

"Steps should be taken to provide a master race to produce Leaders and Dictators"

Did Marx say this? Or is an idiot llying to me? or did Marx say it, but meaning something else to illustrate a point, or is it a snippet from a larger sentence cut at a convenient point to make Marx look a bit Fascist?

any help, thanks!!! :D

PS - i have looked myself on the net, and can only find reference of it on the BNP webiste, which im assuming is where this geezer this afternoon gleaned the quote from originally. I would go trawling through all of Marx's works looking for it, but that would take ages, and im just looking for a quick answer,

Pirate Utopian
1st January 2008, 00:12
Well if we google search Marx2Mao and Marxists Internet Archive the results for it are nil.

http://www.marx2mao.com/cgi-bin/site_Searc...5&submit=Search (http://www.marx2mao.com/cgi-bin/site_Search.cgi?Config=All&Searchterms=Steps+should+be+taken+to+provide+a+mas ter+race+to+produce+Leaders+and+Dictators&Case=Insensitive&Construct=As+a+phrase&Hits=5&submit=Search)
http://www.google.com/search?as_sitesearch...s&as_oq=&as_eq= (http://www.google.com/search?as_sitesearch=www.marxists.org%2Farchive%2F marx%2F&hl=en&ie=8859-1&oe=8859-1&as_occt=any&num=30&btnG=Google+Search%21&as_epq=&as_occt=all&as_q=Steps+should+be+taken+to+provide+a+master+rac e+to+produce+Leaders+and+Dictators&as_oq=&as_eq=)

Red October
1st January 2008, 00:23
If the only source for something is the BNP, it's probably false.

Rosa Lichtenstein
1st January 2008, 01:49
As a reader of Marx for longer than most RevLefters have been alive, I can tell you Marx never said this, or anything remotely like it.

Piece of advice: next time someone makes an allegation of this sort, ask for chapter and verse -- otherwise dismiss it out of hand.

IAmLeviathan
1st January 2008, 15:32
i asked him to source it, which he refused to do, then the first thing i did upon getting hom was search the quote online, for which the only result i could find was the BNP homepage, so i had my suspicions then. I just wanted to make sure i hadnt missed some obscure rant he might have gone on.

Thanks anyway.

Rosa Lichtenstein
1st January 2008, 16:31
The thing is, it does not even sound remotely like Marx. It's as if Hitler had said something like: "Jews, Bolsheviks, trade unionists, homosexuals and Africans are my all time favourite people. Oh, and I can't stand Aryans."